Insilico MedicineInternal review

What the enzyme does, what inhibiting it does, and what is still untested

Blocking KAT6 to slow aging

KAT6A and KAT6B acetylate histone H3 at lysines 9, 14 and 23, which changes how open the chromatin is at thousands of gene loci. They are already drugged: an inhibitor cuts that mark by more than 70 percent in patients at a tolerated dose, and PF-07248144 entered Phase 3 in the second half of 2025. The unsettled question is what the same inhibition does to a body that is aging rather than to a tumor, because inhibiting KAT6 drives cells into senescence and every human result so far comes from metastatic breast cancer.

Prepared for Internal reviewSources 6 reportsDated 2026-08-11

Bottom line

What blocking KAT6 would and would not do

Should Insilico run a KAT6 inhibitor as an aging program?

Conditional go in oncology. No-go today for a standalone aging program.

The enzyme is reachable in people. A KAT6 inhibitor has been shown to reduce its target histone mark by more than 70 percent in patients, and one program is in Phase 3. Engagement at a tolerated dose is not in question.

What is missing is any evidence that engaging it helps a person who is not ill. Every human result comes from metastatic breast cancer, and whether the same effect points in the right direction for aging has not been tested.

Translation assessment, page 1

Senescence is the crux

Four of the six reports state that inhibiting KAT6 induces senescence, and none disputes it. In a tumor that is the mechanism of benefit: cells that stop dividing stop growing the cancer. In an aging body, senescent cells are one of the things drugs are built to clear. The same molecular event is the reason to run this program and the reason it could do harm, and no experiment in this pack tells the two apart.

The evidence

Where the evidence stands

Six reports were read for this page. They came from five agents, all on the same day. None of them was written to agree with the others. The headline on each card below is this page’s reading of where that report lands; under it is a sentence quoted from the report itself.

Target evaluationCautionOncology now, aging later: its strongest cancer signals rank in the first twenty-five of a thousand indications, and its best aging indication ranks 42nd.

“Direct evidence for KAT6A/KAT6B inhibition extending lifespan, modulating SASP, or treating specific aging-associated diseases remains absent from the peer-reviewed literature. This is an emerging, largely unexplored frontier.” Section 3, Aging Indication Landscape

Longevity evidence reviewSupportsConvergent evidence across hallmarks, clocks and preclinical biology, with no lifespan experiment behind it.

“While no direct lifespan extension experiment with a KAT6 inhibitor has been published, the convergence of evidence across hallmarks of aging, epigenetic clocks, and preclinical biology provides a compelling rationale for KAT6 inhibition as an anti-aging strategy — particularly in the context of cancer prevention, selective clearance of pre-senescent cells, and epigenetic age modulation.” page 1

Indication prioritizationSupportsParkinson’s disease first, Alzheimer’s disease second, ahead of every cancer.

“Nine diseases show concordant upregulation of both KAT6A and KAT6B, representing the strongest mechanistic rationale for a dual inhibitor.” page 2

Clinical evidence reviewOpposesNo clinical evidence for KAT6 inhibition in aging, and inducing senescence may be the wrong direction.

“There is currently NO clinical evidence for KAT6 inhibition in anti-aging or in any aging-related non-oncology disease.” page 1

Translation assessmentCautionConditional go in oncology; no-go today for a standalone aging program.

“KAT6 is a genuine dual-biology target (cancer and aging share the epigenetic/senescence axis), but it is not yet a dual-purpose clinical asset.” page 1

LongevityClaw assessmentOpposesA KAT6 inhibitor induces senescence rather than clearing it, so a senescence-based aging indication is very unlikely to work.

“A KAT6 inhibitor is very unlikely to help with senescence, because it is a senescence-inducing agent.” Verdict, Probability assessment

What is not in dispute.
The pointReportsWhat that agreement is worth
No approved drug exists against KAT6A or KAT6B, and no same-family drug has been approved, failed or withdrawn.3No report that addresses this qualifies it. What they disagree about is what an empty landscape means: untapped whitespace in one reading, an absence of evidence in another.
No experiment has been published in which a KAT6 inhibitor extended lifespan or healthspan, and direct evidence that KAT6 inhibition modulates the senescence-associated secretory phenotype is absent from the peer-reviewed literature.3The longevity review states it and then argues past it, calling the gap an opening for a first-in-class position. The others state it and stop.
The MOZ/MORF complex is the real drug target: KAT6A and KAT6B sit in the same tetramer with BRPF1, ING5 and MEAF6.2The STRING interactomes of the two paralogs are the same list in a different order.
Inhibiting KAT6 induces cellular senescence rather than clearing it, and does so without DNA damage (Baell et al., 2018).4Agreed as fact by all four, and sharply disputed as a virtue. It is the finding the whole aging case turns on, and the two reports that do not state it do not contradict it either.

Counted by hand across the source documents.

The reports this page is built from.
ReportProduced byWhat it coversLengthPosition
Target evaluationPandaOmics AgentsTitled an indication prioritization, and the only report in the pack that also characterizes the target itself. 1,000 indications per target across 14 therapeutic areas, plus target characterization from UniProt, PDBe, gnomAD, ChEMBL, GWAS Catalog, ClinVar, Open Targets, Reactome, STRING, Human Protein Atlas and Ensembl Compara.Web pageargues for, with conditions
Longevity evidence reviewPandaClaw longevity agentHallmarks of aging, 27 aging clocks, GTEx expression against donor age, model-organism experiments, and the clinical pipeline.16 pagesargues for
Indication prioritizationPandaOmics differential-expression prioritization139 disease indications, ranked on differential expression of the two genes.12 pagesargues for
Clinical evidence reviewClinicoClaw, Insilico clinical-trial intelligenceClinicalTrials.gov and the internal curated trials dataset, plus a PubMed precedent search.8 pagesargues against
Translation assessmentClinicoClaw, Insilico clinical-trial intelligence18 clinical assets from the internal trials dataset, cross-checked against ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed.6 pagesargues for, with conditions
LongevityClaw assessmentLongevityClaw target-evaluation agentOne question — whether inhibiting KAT6 would reduce the burden of cellular senescence — answered against 15 primary and review sources and a 233-clock reference set.Web pageargues against

Titles, dates and page counts are as they appear on the documents.

How likely is it that a KAT6 inhibitor helps with senescence?
What it puts a number onKAT6i is the source’s shorthand for a KAT6 inhibitor.Its estimate
KAT6i reduces senescent cell burden in normal aged tissue< 10%
KAT6i raises p16 and senescent burden in proliferative compartments~ 90%
Direction of effect holds in adult, non-embryonic tissue~ 70%
A senescence-based aging indication is viable for this classVery low
Cancer-prophylaxis healthspan hypothesis remains testableLive

Statements and estimates are printed as the report gives them. LongevityClaw assessment, Verdict, Probability assessment

How to read these numbers
  • The numbers are the LongevityClaw assessment’s own. It is the only report in the pack to put figures on its own confidence — the other five give none — and nothing on this page averages or adjusts them.
  • The assessment does not show how it arrived at them. They carry the weight of a considered judgment by whoever read the evidence, not of a calculation that could be repeated, and they are reproduced here on that basis.
  • Two of the five answers are not numbers at all. A report that answers one row with a percentage and the next with “very low” has said two different kinds of thing, and both are printed as it wrote them rather than converted into figures it never gave.
  • One other report reaches the same place without a number. The clinical evidence review puts the “prior probability that a KAT6 inhibitor shows ‘solid, robust’ human anti-aging efficacy in the near term” at very low, and it got there by reading the clinical base rate rather than the mouse genetics. Two reports that read different literatures arrived at the same two words.

Open questions

The questions that are still open

Cheapest checks first

Four of these cost less to settle than the rest.

Listed in full under What would change the answer.

Target

The two proteins

KAT6A and KAT6B belong to the MYST family, the histone acetyltransferases numbered KAT5 to KAT8, and they are the two members of it that share the same four-protein complex and write the same histone mark. A compound that blocks one usually blocks the other, which is why the whole pack treats them as a pair rather than as two targets.

Where they differ is in the tissue they are busiest in. That difference is what the oncology case and the aging case each rest on, and it is the reason the two cases point at different organs.

0.08LOEUF for KAT6ALower means loss is less often tolerated. KAT6B is 0.09.
21solved structures for KAT6ABest resolution 1.4 ångström, against 3 structures for KAT6B.
51.8%identity between the twoIntentionally targeted. For a dual inhibitor this is the design basis, not an off-target risk.
459pathogenic KAT6A variantsClinVar records 2,124 variants for KAT6A in all.
The two genes side by side, as the target evaluation records them.
KAT6AKAT6B
Also known asMOZ, MYST3MORF, QKF, MYST4
UniProtQ92794Q8WYB5
Length2004 amino acids2073 amino acids
Mark writtenH3K23H3K23
Solved structures21, best 1.4 ångström3, best 1.6 ångström
Tolerance of loss (LOEUF)0.080.09
ClinVar variants2,124, of which 459 pathogenic1,818, of which 346 pathogenic
Disease of lossMany pathogenic variants are linked to KAT6A syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder.Pathogenic variants are linked to Genitopatellar syndrome and to Say-Barber-Biesecker-Young-Simpson syndrome.
Busiest cell typeNeutrophils, 1367 normalized counts per millionDistal convoluted tubule cells, 244 normalized counts per million
Essential in DepMapNot common-essentialNot common-essential
Mouse sequence identity88.4%Not recorded. The target evaluation gives this figure for KAT6A only.

UniProt, NCBI Gene, the Protein Data Bank, gnomAD v4, ClinVar and the Human Protein Atlas, as cited by the target evaluation.

What the constraint statistics imply
  • LOEUF 0.08 for KAT6A and 0.09 for KAT6B places both among the most constrained genes in the genome, consistent with essential roles in hematopoiesis and development.
  • Very low LOEUF implies inhibition may be poorly tolerated at high doses, and the report calls the therapeutic window narrow.
  • Neither gene is common-essential in DepMap, which suggests complete inhibition is not broadly cell-lethal, and the Phase 1 safety profile reported for PF-07248144 was described as manageable.
  • KAT6A knockout in mice causes severe hematopoietic stem cell depletion (Katsumoto et al., 2006). KAT6B mutations cause Genitopatellar syndrome.

Figure 1

Moderate cross-reactivity riskLow cross-reactivity risk
Sequence identity to KAT6A, percent0102030405060KAT6B against KAT6A51.8%KAT843.9%KAT738.3%KAT536.1%DPF221.0%
How close the nearest relatives are, and how the evaluation rates each one.

Ensembl Compara, as reported in the target evaluation.

What the evaluation says to test against

Selectivity profiling against KAT8 and KAT7 is recommended.

How strong the human genetics really is

The evaluation grades its own genetic support as moderate / indirect. Human genetic support for the lead oncology indications is association-level. The genome-wide association study traits are not fine-mapped to KAT6A or KAT6B as the causal gene. The strongest genetic evidence is the recurrent KAT6A chromosomal translocation in acute myeloid leukemia, which is direct oncogenic driver evidence.

Structure

What the solved structures actually contain

KAT6A reading a crotonylated histone H3 tail

Chain A is the KAT6A double plant homeodomain finger: two small folds, each held in shape by zinc, which together clamp the tail of histone H3. Chain B is that tail, its first twenty-two amino acids, and the residue drawn in blue is its lysine at position fourteen carrying a crotonyl group. The purple spheres are the four zinc ions; they hold the fold together and take no part in any reaction. The protein crystallized here carries two engineered amino acid substitutions, so it is a variant of the human sequence rather than the wild type.

KAT6B reading a butyrylated histone H3 tail

The same module in KAT6B, the protein the rest of this section treats as the other half of the pair. Chain A is the double plant homeodomain finger and chain C is the first sixteen amino acids of histone H3; the residue in blue is again lysine fourteen, this time carrying a butyryl group rather than a crotonyl one. The crystal holds two copies of the complex and the second copy is left out of this view. Four zinc ions hold each copy of the fold.

KAT6A holding the free end of a histone H3 tail

The KAT6A module again, and the entry whose fine print matters. The sequence deposited with it names an acetylated lysine at position fourteen, but the coordinates stop at residue seven, so that lysine is not resolved and nothing in this view is highlighted as the mark. What is present is the far end of the same grip: the free start of the histone H3 tail and the arginine beside it, lying against the surface of the module. The zinc ions are structural, and the only other group in the file is an acetate ion left over from the crystallization.

All three coordinate sets cover the same piece of the protein: the double plant homeodomain finger, the module that reads a histone tail and holds the enzyme on it. It is not the MYST acetyltransferase domain that writes the mark, and no inhibitor is bound in any of the three. A chemist looking for the pocket a compound would occupy will not find it in these files; what is here is the grip.

Coordinates as deposited in the Protein Data Bank. All three identifiers, and the resolutions printed with them, are ones the target evaluation lists.

Druggability

What can be built against it, and who is already building

Knowing the pair is worth blocking is not the same as knowing a molecule can. This section holds what the target evaluation found about the protein as a thing to build against: the solved structures a chemist would work from, the patent families already filed, and the compounds other companies have taken into people.

The patent count is the part of it that changes the picture most. A field with no trials in it can still be a field that several organizations are working hard, and composition-of-matter filings are visible years before a trial is.

One listed structure is not KAT6A

Each of the eight identifiers in the table below was looked up in the Protein Data Bank’s entry record for each identifier, retrieved 2026-08-12. Seven of them return the protein the evaluation names. One does not. 8A27 is the epidermal growth factor receptor kinase domain bound to an isoindolinone acetamide, solved by X-ray diffraction at 1.07 ångström. No KAT6A chain is deposited under it. The table and the chart below print that row as the evaluation printed it, because this page transcribes its sources rather than correcting them in place. The full entry is in the corrections section.

The eight structures the evaluation lists one by one. Resolution is how finely the structure was resolved, measured in ångström, where a smaller number is a sharper picture.
StructureProteinHow it was solvedResolution, ångströmShare of the protein
5B78KAT6AX-ray diffraction1.46%
3V43KAT6AX-ray diffraction1.476%
7Y43KAT6AX-ray diffraction1.54%
5B77KAT6AX-ray diffraction1.556%
8A27KAT6AX-ray diffraction1.5513%
5U2JKAT6BX-ray diffraction1.65%
6OIEKAT6BX-ray diffraction2.085%
8E4VKAT6BSolution NMR4%

KAT6A: 21 solved in all, five listed here, solved by X-ray diffraction and Solution NMR. KAT6B: three listed. A dash in the resolution column is a structure solved by a method that does not report one.

Figure 2

KAT6AKAT6B
Share of the protein covered, percent024681012145B786%3V436%7Y434%5B776%8A2713%5U2J5%6OIE5%8E4V4%
How much of each protein its solved structures actually cover. The largest of them reaches 13 percent of the sequence, so every one of them is a piece of the protein rather than the whole of it.

Coverage is the share of the full-length sequence a deposited structure spans, as the evaluation records it.

What the KAT6A structures cover, and what has to be modeled

Coverage is per-domain — primarily MYST-HAT domain and PHD fingers.

What the KAT6B structures cover, and what has to be modeled

The KAT6B HAT domain can be modeled by homology from KAT6A (~52% identity in the MYST domain).

The patent field

The evaluation names seven holders with filings against this target. It calls the field highly active. Freedom to operate is the right to make and sell a compound without infringing a patent somebody else holds, and it is settled by the chemical series a program runs on rather than by the protein it aims at.

The seven patent holders the evaluation names, and the eight filings it lists for them.
HolderFilingsChemical series
PfizerEP4181920B1, US12545669B2benzisoxazole sulfonamides
CTXT Pty LtdUS11911372B2thiadiazine derivatives
Hangzhou InogateJP7749263B2
HengruiWO2023016484A1macrocyclic compounds
IsosterixUS11976075B2
Xuanzhu / ShandongCN116621859Atricyclic scaffolds
Beijing ConlansJP2026512835A

Fifteen or more patent families, with filings running through 2024 to 2026. A dash means no chemical series was recorded for that holder, which is the case for three of seven.

What the evaluation concludes about freedom to operate
  • Freedom-to-operate requires careful scaffold differentiation.

Who else is working on this

The evaluation looked for a clinical program against four related proteins, KAT6B, KAT8, KAT7 and KAT5, and found none against any of them. That is a search of trial registries rather than of the world: a compound nobody has registered is invisible to it.

The competitive picture in the evaluation’s own words
  • No same-family drug has been approved, failed, or withdrawn — the KAT6 inhibitor class is entirely novel.
  • PF-07248144 (Pfizer) is the only known clinical-stage program, currently in Phase 1 for ER+/HER2− metastatic breast cancer (Mukohara et al., 2024).
  • WM-8014 and WM-1119 are academic tool compounds from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (Baell et al., 2018).
  • Multiple companies are filing composition-of-matter patents (see IP landscape above), suggesting active preclinical pipelines from Hengrui, Hangzhou Inogate, CTXT, Isosterix, Beijing Conlans, and Xuanzhu.
Three places the evaluation says a program here could differentiate itself
  • Hitting both targets simultaneously, reducing resistance risk
  • Accessing KAT6B-dominant indications (lymphoma, neurodegeneration)
  • Exploiting the aging/senescence biology unique to dual inhibition

Expression

Which diseases carry the signal

The indication report compared KAT6A and KAT6B expression in diseased tissue against matched normal tissue across 139 diseases, then sorted them by whether the two genes move together. A positive log2 fold change means the gene is more highly expressed in the diseased tissue.

The sort matters more than any single value. Where both genes are raised, blocking the enzyme has an obvious direction of effect. Where both are lowered, it does not, and the report has to argue that reduced expression is compensation rather than a reason to leave the pathway alone. That argument is the weakest load-bearing step in the whole pack.

Indication prioritization, pages 1 to 2

139diseases comparedEvery disease with expression data for at least one of the two genes.
9with both genes raisedTier 1, the group the report calls the strongest case for an inhibitor.
39classed as age-relatedAgainst 66 in oncology.
−0.509largest change in either geneKAT6B in Coronary artery disease, at −0.509. The largest movement the other way is KAT6A in Familial amyloid neuropathy, at +0.425.

Indication prioritization, pages 1, 2 and 5

This chart is a redraw, not a copy

The quadrant labels on the original are mirrored through the origin, so a disease with both genes raised is drawn in the corner marked as both lowered. The values behind the figure are right; only its labels are wrong. The chart below carries the corrected labels. The full entry is in the corrections section.

Indication prioritization, Figure 2, page 3 of the indication report

Figure 3

Tier
Area
38 diseases shown
Tier 1, both raisedTier 2, both loweredTier 3, discordantTier 4, one gene measured, in the table only
−0.4−0.4−0.2−0.2000.20.20.40.4Both raisedTier 1Both loweredTier 2KAT6A lower, KAT6B higherTier 3KAT6A higher, KAT6B lowerTier 3Parkinson’s disease: KAT6A +0.414, KAT6B +0.326Alzheimer’s disease: KAT6A +0.364, KAT6B +0.290Medulloblastoma: KAT6A +0.184, KAT6B +0.414Azoospermia: KAT6A +0.243, KAT6B +0.299Invasive lobular carcinoma: KAT6A +0.186, KAT6B +0.274Oligodendroglioma: KAT6A +0.158, KAT6B +0.297Adrenal gland pheochromocytoma: KAT6A +0.157, KAT6B +0.250Astrocytoma: KAT6A +0.147, KAT6B +0.079Kaposi’s sarcoma: KAT6A +0.085, KAT6B +0.116Hypertension: KAT6A −0.471, KAT6B −0.394Diffuse scleroderma: KAT6A −0.285, KAT6B −0.426Polycythemia vera: KAT6A −0.269, KAT6B −0.403Primary myelofibrosis: KAT6A −0.365, KAT6B −0.221Chronic myelogenous leukemia: KAT6A −0.278, KAT6B −0.243Diabetic nephropathy: KAT6A −0.264, KAT6B −0.217Burkitt’s lymphoma: KAT6A −0.288, KAT6B −0.145Hodgkin’s lymphoma: KAT6A −0.181, KAT6B −0.247Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: KAT6A −0.232, KAT6B −0.190Type I diabetes mellitus: KAT6A −0.236, KAT6B −0.177Psoriasis: KAT6A −0.216, KAT6B −0.180Melanoma: KAT6A −0.143, KAT6B −0.247Cirrhosis of liver: KAT6A −0.177, KAT6B −0.171Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: KAT6A −0.137, KAT6B −0.164Actinic keratosis: KAT6A −0.160, KAT6B −0.115Age-related macular degeneration: KAT6A −0.087, KAT6B −0.101Dilated cardiomyopathy: KAT6A −0.115, KAT6B −0.048Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: KAT6A +0.112, KAT6B −0.061KAT6A log2 fold changeKAT6B log2 fold change
Each dot is one disease. The buttons above narrow the chart and the table below it together, so a tier can be read as points and as numbers at once.

Drawn in place of Figure 2, KAT6A versus KAT6B concordance, on page 3 of the indication prioritization.

Values as printed in the tier tables of the indication report. A point needs both genes, so eleven of these diseases are in the table and not on the chart: the report prints one gene’s value for nine of them and neither gene’s for two. Indication prioritization, pages 2 to 5

Every disease the report’s tier tables name, with the page it was read from.
DiseaseAreaKAT6AKAT6BKAT6A p‑valueKAT6B p‑valueTierPage
Parkinson’s diseaseAge-related+0.414+0.3262.73e-70.00112
Alzheimer’s diseaseAge-related+0.364+0.2901.02e-142.78e-1012
MedulloblastomaOncology+0.184+0.4145.24e-161.08e-4012
AzoospermiaOther+0.243+0.2995.23e-62.47e-612
Invasive lobular carcinomaOncology+0.186+0.2740.0370.01312
OligodendrogliomaOncology+0.158+0.2976.49e-152.32e-1212
Adrenal gland pheochromocytomaOncology+0.157+0.2509e-44.3e-812
AstrocytomaOncology+0.147+0.0799.96e-80.01812
Kaposi’s sarcomaOncology+0.085+0.1160.0440.02913
HypertensionAge-related−0.471−0.39424
Diffuse sclerodermaAge-related−0.285−0.42624
Polycythemia veraOncology & age-related−0.269−0.40324
Primary myelofibrosisOncology & age-related−0.365−0.22124
Chronic myelogenous leukemiaOncology−0.278−0.24324
Diabetic nephropathyAge-related−0.264−0.21724
Burkitt’s lymphomaOncology−0.288−0.14524
Hodgkin’s lymphomaOncology−0.181−0.24724
Diffuse large B-cell lymphomaOncology−0.232−0.19024
Type I diabetes mellitusAge-related−0.236−0.17724
PsoriasisAge-related−0.216−0.18024
MelanomaOncology−0.143−0.24724
Cirrhosis of liverAge-related−0.177−0.17124
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisAge-related−0.137−0.16424
Actinic keratosisAge-related−0.160−0.11524
Age-related macular degenerationAge-related−0.087−0.10124
Dilated cardiomyopathyAge-related−0.115−0.04824
Systemic sclerodermaAge-related25
Juvenile idiopathic arthritisAge-related35
Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosisAge-related+0.112−0.06135
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisAge-related+0.36445
Coronary artery diseaseAge-related−0.50945
Familial amyloid neuropathyAge-related+0.42545
Familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosisAge-related+0.16646
Multiple sclerosisAge-related+0.20445
Myocardial infarctionAge-related−0.40745
Pick diseaseAge-related+0.29945
Portal hypertensionAge-related−0.50545
StrokeAge-related−0.22645

Sorted by tier, then by the report’s own rank within the tier. The bar under each fold change draws that number on one scale shared by both genes: it runs right from the zero line where the gene is raised in diseased tissue and left where it is lowered, and reaches full length at half a log2 unit. Significance values are reproduced as the report prints them, and it prints them for the first tier only, so a dash is a value the source does not give rather than a result that missed a threshold. Click a column heading to sort. Indication prioritization, tier tables, pages 2 to 6

Figure 4

log2 fold change00.10.20.30.4Familial amyloid neuropathyFamilial amyloid neuropathyFamilial amyloid neuropathy, KAT6A: +0.425+0.425Familial amyloid neuropathy, KAT6B: no datano dataParkinson’s diseaseParkinson’s diseaseParkinson’s disease, KAT6A: +0.414+0.414Parkinson’s disease, KAT6B: +0.326+0.326Alzheimer’s diseaseAlzheimer’s diseaseAlzheimer’s disease, KAT6A: +0.364+0.364Alzheimer’s disease, KAT6B: +0.290+0.290Pick diseasePick diseasePick disease, KAT6A: +0.299+0.299Pick disease, KAT6B: no datano dataMultiple sclerosisMultiple sclerosisMultiple sclerosis, KAT6A: +0.204+0.204Multiple sclerosis, KAT6B: no datano dataAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familial)Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familial)Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familial), KAT6A: +0.166+0.166Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familial), KAT6B: no datano dataAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sporadic)Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sporadic)Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sporadic), KAT6A: +0.112+0.112Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sporadic), KAT6B: −0.061−0.061
KAT6A is raised in all seven neurodegenerative conditions surveyed. KAT6B has a printed value in only three of them, and agrees in two: in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis it is slightly lowered while KAT6A is raised. The two conditions where both genes rise together are also the two the report puts in its top tier.

A disease with no printed value for a gene is marked as such rather than plotted at zero. Use the legend to hide either gene. Indication prioritization, page 5

Figure 5

log2 fold change−0.100.10.2MedulloblastomaMedulloblastomaMedulloblastoma, KAT6A: +0.181+0.181Medulloblastoma, KAT6B: +0.265+0.265Gastric cancerGastric cancerGastric cancer, KAT6A: +0.089+0.089Gastric cancer, KAT6B: −0.103−0.103Bile duct cancerBile duct cancerBile duct cancer, KAT6A: +0.080+0.080Bile duct cancer, KAT6B: +0.030+0.030AstrocytomaAstrocytomaAstrocytoma, KAT6A: +0.071+0.071Astrocytoma, KAT6B: +0.029+0.029Pancreatic carcinomaPancreatic carcinomaPancreatic carcinoma, KAT6A: +0.044+0.044Pancreatic carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.117−0.117Small cell lung carcinomaSmall cell lung carcinomaSmall cell lung carcinoma, KAT6A: +0.035+0.035Small cell lung carcinoma, KAT6B: +0.001+0.001Renal cell carcinomaRenal cell carcinomaRenal cell carcinoma, KAT6A: +0.030+0.030Renal cell carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.010−0.010Colorectal cancerColorectal cancerColorectal cancer, KAT6A: +0.017+0.017Colorectal cancer, KAT6B: −0.094−0.094Breast carcinomaBreast carcinomaBreast carcinoma, KAT6A: +0.016+0.016Breast carcinoma, KAT6B: +0.003+0.003Head and neck squamous cell carcinomaHead and neck squamous cell carcinomaHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma, KAT6A: −0.014−0.014Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.050−0.050Acute lymphoblastic leukemiaAcute lymphoblastic leukemiaAcute lymphoblastic leukemia, KAT6A: −0.023−0.023Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, KAT6B: +0.081+0.081Hepatocellular carcinomaHepatocellular carcinomaHepatocellular carcinoma, KAT6A: −0.023−0.023Hepatocellular carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.012−0.012Ovarian carcinomaOvarian carcinomaOvarian carcinoma, KAT6A: −0.032−0.032Ovarian carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.098−0.098Myelodysplastic syndromeMyelodysplastic syndromeMyelodysplastic syndrome, KAT6A: −0.039−0.039Myelodysplastic syndrome, KAT6B: +0.066+0.066Multiple myelomaMultiple myelomaMultiple myeloma, KAT6A: −0.051−0.051Multiple myeloma, KAT6B: −0.074−0.074Lung cancerLung cancerLung cancer, KAT6A: −0.052−0.052Lung cancer, KAT6B: −0.066−0.066Chronic lymphocytic leukemiaChronic lymphocytic leukemiaChronic lymphocytic leukemia, KAT6A: −0.057−0.057Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, KAT6B: +0.106+0.106B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomaB-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomaB-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, KAT6A: −0.073−0.073B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, KAT6B: +0.015+0.015Prostate carcinomaProstate carcinomaProstate carcinoma, KAT6A: −0.109−0.109Prostate carcinoma, KAT6B: −0.090−0.090Myeloid leukemiaMyeloid leukemiaMyeloid leukemia, KAT6A: −0.110−0.110Myeloid leukemia, KAT6B: −0.031−0.031
Median fold change across experiments for the cancers the report charts separately. The report printed five of these in bold red; those are highlighted here.

Read from the value labels printed on the source figure, not from a table of values. This is a different statistic from the tier tables and the two should not be compared directly. Indication prioritization, Figure 6, page 9

What the two figures do not settle

KAT6A is raised in all seven neurodegenerative conditions surveyed, though KAT6B is printed for only three of them and moves the other way in one. That is the strongest single observation in the indication report, and it is still an observation about messenger RNA in diseased tissue. The Clinical evidence review’s objection stands: a fold change of this size is not evidence that lowering the enzyme’s activity changes the disease.

Ranking

Where age-related disease sits in the ranking

The same run scored both genes against roughly 1,000 indications using 23 measures drawn from disease datasets, from the published literature and from grant funding. Language-model scores were excluded, and umbrella terms such as cancer and sarcoma were removed so that they could not crowd the top of the list.

This is a different question from the expression comparison. Expression asks whether the genes move in diseased tissue. The ranking asks how much of everything already known about a gene points at a given disease. A disease can score well on one and poorly on the other, and the aging indications do exactly that.

Figure 6

Falls under the composite ranking
Differential expressiontier, and position within itComposite rankingposition among 1,000 indications#1#10#100#1,000Alzheimer’s diseaseTier 1 · #2 of 9#132Parkinson’s diseaseTier 1 · #1 of 9#696Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisTier 2 · #14 of 35#814Age-related macular degenerationTier 2 · #16 of 35#954
The same diseases under both methods. Diseases at the top of the expression tiers sit in the hundreds once everything else known about the genes is counted.

Left, the tier tables of the indication report. Right, the composite rank out of 1,000 from the target evaluation, for whichever of the two genes the ranking placed the disease under, taking the higher position where it placed both. Each gridline on the right-hand scale marks ten times the position of the one before it, so the top of the field is spread out and the tail is compressed.

Every age-related indication the evaluation ranked, with its position out of 1,000.
IndicationKAT6AKAT6BStronger geneWhat drives it
Cardiovascular disease#83#42KAT6BGWAS: body mass index for KAT6B, bone density for KAT6A
Alzheimer’s disease#132KAT6BGWAS: Alzheimer disease for KAT6A, educational attainment for KAT6B
Postmenopausal osteoporosis#676#890KAT6AGWAS: bone density for KAT6A
Skin aging#669KAT6BEpigenetic changes in skin aging
Parkinson’s disease#696KAT6BKAT6B expressed in brain neurons
Sarcopenia#750KAT6AAge-related muscle wasting
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome#812KAT6BAccelerated aging model
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis#814KAT6BSenescence in fibrotic lung
Age-related macular degeneration#954KAT6ARetinal aging
Metabolic syndrome#989KAT6AGWAS: type 2 diabetes for KAT6A

A dash means the gene did not rank the indication at all.

How to read those positions

KAT6B carries the aging signal more strongly than KAT6A, with better ranks for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and progeria. That fits its higher expression in brain neurons and kidney tubule cells. The ranks themselves are the important detail: the best aging indication sits at 42 out of 1,000, and eight of the other nine sit past 600.

The indications the ranking puts first, before any age-related filter is applied, with their positions out of 1,000.
IndicationKAT6AKAT6BMeasures carrying the score
breast cancer#3#4Evidence, Trend, Attention, Matrix factorization
leukemia#5#3Grant funding, Attention, Graph walk, Matrix factorization
acute myeloid leukemia#4#15Attention, Grant funding, Interactome, Causal inference
lymphoma#24#11Graph walk, Matrix factorization, Interactome
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma#28#12Interactome, Matrix factorization
hepatocellular carcinoma#17#25Mutated sub-modules, Interactome, Graph walk
chronic lymphocytic leukemia#38#16Interactome, Graph walk, Expression
breast carcinoma#32#32Matrix factorization, Evidence, Relevance

The full list runs to twelve; the eight highest-ranked are shown. Indication names are printed with the capitalization the evaluation gives them, which is not the capitalization the indication report uses for the same diseases.

Evidence, Trend and Relevance carry no weight in the evaluation’s own appraisal
  • Literature/attention scores … reflect research activity, not biological validation — they are weight-0 for trust.
  • Trust rests on independent high-weight lines that agree, not the count of correlated scores.
The gap the evaluation states in its own words

“Direct evidence for KAT6A/KAT6B inhibition extending lifespan, modulating SASP, or treating specific aging-associated diseases remains absent from the peer-reviewed literature.”

What the evaluation says its own ranking cannot do
  • DE uses the PandaOmics Expression score (raw logFC unavailable in this environment).
  • GWAS/mutation are association-level, not fine-mapped.
  • Single prioritization source; scores are relative within PandaOmics.
  • The aging indication prioritization relies on term-matching and PandaOmics ranking — no dedicated aging/longevity database was available.
  • PF-07248144 is not yet registered in ChEMBL, so clinical tiering may underrepresent the maturity of the breast cancer indication.

Rationale

Why these indications, and what would settle them

A rank is a position in a list, and a position is not a reason. This section is the target evaluation’s own account of why the enzyme should matter in the diseases it put at the top, and what it would run next to find out whether it does.

It is reproduced rather than summarized. The reasoning is the part of that report a reader can argue with, and paraphrasing it would put this page between the reader and the argument.

The evaluation makes five mechanistic arguments and records five next steps, and it does not name the indications the same way in both: one of the headings appears word for word in the other list. They are set out below in the order the evaluation gives them rather than paired up.

The five mechanistic arguments the evaluation makes, in the order it makes them.
What it is aboutWhat the evaluation argues
Acute myeloid leukemiaKAT6A/MOZ was identified through its involvement in recurrent AML chromosomal translocations. The MOZ-TIF2 fusion (t(8;8)(p11;p12)) drives leukemogenesis by sequestering CBP, impairing p53, and repressing cellular senescence (Carapeti et al., 1998; Kindle et al., 2005; Largeot et al., 2016). MOZ-TIF2 displays KAT6-dependent H3K23 propionylation and overexpresses developmental genes (Smolko et al., 2024). WM-1119 effectively targets KAT6A-rearranged AML in preclinical models (Sheridan et al., 2024). Wild-type MOZ is essential for maintenance of HSCs — conditional knockout depletes long-term repopulating cells (Katsumoto et al., 2006).
ER+ breast cancerKAT6A is amplified/overexpressed in ER+ breast cancer. KAT6 inhibition induces cellular senescence and proliferative arrest through p21 upregulation, providing a non-cytotoxic anti-cancer mechanism (Baell et al., 2018). PF-07248144, a KAT6A inhibitor, demonstrated clinical proof-of-concept in a Phase 1 dose-escalation trial in ER+/HER2− metastatic breast cancer with manageable safety and early anti-tumor activity (Mukohara et al., 2024).
Lymphoma and other hematological malignanciesBoth KAT6A and KAT6B are involved in B-cell development and lymphoid biology. MOZ-rearranged leukemia is driven through MLL-mediated activation of CpG-rich promoters (Miyamoto et al., 2020). The MOZ/MORF complex regulates HOX gene expression and stem cell self-renewal programs relevant across hematological malignancies (Yang & Ullah, 2007; Huang et al., 2016).
Cellular senescence and agingThe landmark Baell et al. (2018) study demonstrated that WM-8014 and WM-1119 induce senescence without DNA damage or apoptosis — an irreversible growth arrest phenotype mechanistically distinct from cytotoxic agents. KAT6A acetylates p53, promoting premature senescence (Rokudai et al., 2013). The MOZ-TIF2 oncoprotein actively represses senescence (Largeot et al., 2016), establishing KAT6A as a senescence rheostat. This positions KAT6 inhibitors at the intersection of cancer and aging biology: the same mechanism that arrests tumor growth could, in principle, modulate senescent cell accumulation in aging tissues.
NeurodegenerationKAT6B is enriched in brain excitatory neurons and choroid plexus epithelial cells. KAT6A has GWAS associations with Alzheimer disease and dementia. However, direct experimental evidence linking KAT6 inhibition to neuroprotection is absent — this remains the weakest mechanistic link and requires dedicated investigation.

Every sentence in the right-hand column is the evaluation’s own, citations included. None of it was checked against the papers it names.

The five indications the evaluation carries forward. It records the same verdict against every one of them, conditional.
IndicationWhat would have to happen nextWhat would rule it out
Breast cancer (ER+)Wait for the PF-07248144 Phase 1 expansion data, and run drug-target Mendelian randomization for a causal KAT6A effect on breast cancer.PF-07248144 fails to show objective response.
Acute myeloid leukemiaWM-1119 or dual inhibitor efficacy in MOZ-fusion AML PDX modelsNo proliferation arrest in MOZ-TIF2+ primary samples.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomaCell-line panel screen (DLBCL, MCL)No single-agent activity in lymphoma lines.
Cardiovascular disease (aging)Senescence/SASP panel in ApoE-KO miceNo reduction in vascular senescent cell burden.
Alzheimer’s disease (aging)KAT6B expression profiling in AD brain tissueNo differential expression in AD vs control.

Every one of these has a recorded result that would rule it out. Both columns carry the evaluation’s own words, apart from one step written out here because the evaluation set the relation as an arrow.

Mechanism

The case that this target sits in the biology of later life

The longevity review makes its case in two parts. First, that both genes sit on pathways already recognized as drivers of aging. Second, that blocking them pushes damaged cells into a permanent growth arrest without killing the healthy cells around them.

The first part is well supported and largely uncontested. The second is the load-bearing claim, and the review states the objection to it before answering: the arrest it wants to induce is the same process that other aging programs spend their money removing.

Longevity evidence review, pages 5 and 3

3hallmarks touched by KAT6AEpigenetic alterations, cellular senescence and genomic instability. KAT6B is associated with one, epigenetic alterations.
5arguments for a therapeutic windowEach argument answers the objection that healthy cells are affected too.
0lifespan experiments runNo published study has dosed a KAT6 inhibitor and measured how long anything lived.
4age-related resources checkedNone of them lists either gene.
The three hallmarks the review connects KAT6A to.
HallmarkWhat the review claimsWhat the claim does not coverConfidencereview’s own
Epigenetic alterationsBoth genes are themselves epigenetic regulators: they acetylate histone H3 at lysines 9, 14 and 23, which changes how open the chromatin is at thousands of gene loci.Being a feature in a clock says where a gene sits in a statistical model. It does not say what happens to predicted age when the gene is inhibited.5 of 5
Cellular senescenceKAT6A normally holds the CDKN2A locus shut, keeping p16 and p14 low and cells proliferating. Inhibiting KAT6 re-opens that locus, p16 and p14 rise, the retinoblastoma and p53 pathways switch on, and the cell arrests permanently in G1.No finding in the pack is more contested. Senescent cell burden is one of the things aging medicine spends its money trying to reduce, and the same mechanism is being counted here as a benefit.5 of 5
Genomic instabilityH3K9 acetylation, the mark KAT6A deposits, obstructs activation of the ATM kinase and impairs the DNA damage response in normal stem cells.The experiment reduced the mark directly. No KAT6 inhibitor was used, and no aging animal was involved.3 of 5

Confidence is the review’s own five-point rating, reproduced rather than recomputed. Longevity evidence review, page 5

The review states the objection to its own thesis and answers it in five parts: that KAT6 inhibitors push damaged and pre-cancerous cells into senescence far more readily than normal cells, so the selectivity is a matter of degree rather than an on-off switch.
The argumentAs the review puts itWhere it stops
Cancer cells carry extra copies of KAT6A and depend on themKAT6A sits inside the 8p11-p12 amplicon, present in 10 to 15 percent of breast cancers. Cells that carry the amplification have built their transcriptional program around unusually high KAT6A activity.The review gives the amplicon frequency as 12 to 15 percent in its clinical section and 10 to 15 percent here, citing the same paper.
KAT6B backs KAT6A up in normal cellsThe two proteins share about 60 percent of their amino acid sequence and the same domain layout, so endogenous KAT6B can absorb partial loss of KAT6A in a normal cell.That rescue is developmental, genetic and in mice. It shows the backup exists; it does not show a drug leaves it intact.
The p16 checkpoint fires hardest in cells already under strainCells carrying activated oncogenes push p16 upward constantly and are held in check only by KAT6A. Remove that restraint and p16 crosses the arrest threshold. Normal cells have no such pressure, so a modest rise stays below the line.The parallel is an argument by analogy. No experiment in the pack measures where that threshold sits in normal tissue during KAT6 inhibition.
Human safety data show normal tissue tolerating the drugIn the Phase 1 trial, more than 70 percent of the H3K23 acetylation mark was removed in normal blood cells as well as in tumor, and the toxicity that followed was confined to reversible myelosuppression.Manageable for months in metastatic breast cancer is a different bar from tolerable for years in a healthy adult. The translation assessment makes exactly this objection.
Halving the gene is safe and still protects against cancerMice with one working copy develop normally, and survive roughly four times longer when challenged with MYC-driven lymphoma, from 105 days to 413 days.Arboleda-Tham syndrome involves developmental delay. The review reports normal lifespan alongside that, without weighing the two.

The five arguments are numbered in the review; the order is preserved. Longevity evidence review, page 3

The review’s own concession

The review is explicit that the selectivity is imperfect.

  • The compounds that established the mechanism, WM-8014 and WM-1119, were shown to induce senescence in non-cancerous cells: mouse embryonic fibroblasts and IMR-90 fibroblasts.
  • Grade 3 neutropenia in 39.5 percent of patients confirms that normal myeloid progenitors are affected.
  • KAT6A is required for normal hematopoietic and neural stem cell maintenance.
  • Its answer is a comparison rather than a rebuttal: CDK4/6 inhibitors cause grade 3 or 4 neutropenia in up to 65 percent of patients and became standard of care anyway, because the window was wide enough.

Longevity evidence review, page 3

Associations

What the clock and expression data actually show

Two bodies of data carry the aging argument. Epigenetic clocks, which predict age from methylation at particular sites, include KAT6A or KAT6B among their inputs more often than chance would suggest. And in donated tissue from people who were not ill, expression of the two genes changes with the donor’s age.

Both are associations. Neither shows that changing the enzyme changes the aging process, and the review is explicit that no published work links a KAT6 inhibitor to an epigenetic clock reading.

Longevity evidence review, pages 6 and 11

27clocks include one of the genesAcross 78 separate entries.
24of those include KAT6BAgainst 6 for KAT6A.
−0.341the review’s strongest single signalKAT6B in the mammalian lifespan predictor, ranked 12 of 145 within that clock.
818donors in the largest tissue sampleMuscle, skeletal, measured for KAT6A. The smallest of the samples drawn here holds 255 donors.

Longevity evidence review, pages 6, 8, 10 and 11

The review’s own summary of this evidence

The review reports “5 of 8 key evidence streams support KAT6 inhibition for anti-aging”. The eight streams behind that count are listed below, with the direction each one points.

Longevity evidence review, page 11

The eight evidence streams the review’s verdict is counted from.
Clock or datasetGeneCoefficientRankwithin the clockWhat the review reads into it
Mammalian lifespan predictorSupportsKAT6B−0.34112 of 145Species whose KAT6B locus is more heavily methylated, and so more silenced, live longer.
Mammalian sexual maturitySupportsKAT6B+0.6768 of 227More KAT6B silencing goes with later maturation, which across species goes with longer life.
PASTA age-shiftSupportsKAT6A1.28e-055313 of 8112KAT6A expression tracks with an older transcriptomic age.
REG chronological ageSupportsKAT6A+3.80e-04979 of 8112KAT6A expression rises with chronological age.
Pan-mammalian age, relative to lifespanSupportsKAT6B−0.137123 of 613More KAT6B silencing goes with a younger position in the species lifespan.
GrimAge, versions 1 and 2CautionKAT6B+192.7637 of 123KAT6B methylation, and so silencing, rises as biological age advances. The review reads this as the body already doing what the drug would do; this page reads it as equally consistent with the drug pushing a mark that is already moving.
Peters TRAP blood transcriptomeCautionKAT6B−0.0321473 of 11908KAT6B expression falls with age in blood, so inhibition would push further in a direction age has already taken.
CD4 naive T-cell deconvolutionOpposesKAT6B−0.09813 of 208KAT6B silencing goes with fewer naive CD4 T-cells, which is a marker of an aging immune system. The review flags this for monitoring during chronic dosing.

Coefficients, ranks and readings are the review’s own, from its integrated table, except where a row says this page reads it otherwise. The clocks do not share a sign convention: in an age-shift model a negative coefficient means older, and in a chronological-age model a positive one does. Entry and clock totals are from the two per-gene sections. Longevity evidence review, page 10

Figure 7

Gene
With age
18 tissue measurements shown
KAT6AKAT6B
Correlation with donor age−0.2−0.100.10.2Skin, not sun-exposed · KAT6A+0.243Heart, left ventricle · KAT6B−0.224Lung · KAT6A+0.222Colon, transverse · KAT6B+0.157Heart, left ventricle · KAT6A−0.156Artery, aorta · KAT6B−0.142Whole blood · KAT6A+0.135Adipose, subcutaneous · KAT6A+0.121Artery, aorta · KAT6A−0.116Colon, transverse · KAT6A+0.110Skin, not sun-exposed · KAT6B+0.110Brain, hippocampus · KAT6B−0.108Whole blood · KAT6B+0.096Muscle, skeletal · KAT6A+0.083Skin, sun-exposed · KAT6B+0.078Muscle, skeletal · KAT6B+0.059Brain, hippocampus · KAT6A−0.037Brain, cortex · KAT6A+0.024
Bars run left or right of zero according to whether expression rises or falls with donor age, and are ordered by how strong the correlation is. Every correlation here is weak: the widest bar, skin at 0.243, accounts for under six percent of the variation between donors.

Tissue from non-diseased donors in the GTEx tissue-expression database, version 10. Readings are transcripts per million, log-transformed after adding one so that zero readings stay on the scale, correlated against binned donor age with Pearson’s coefficient. The review gives its retrieval date in a form that reads as either 12 November or 11 December 2024. Binned intervals were used for commercial licence compliance. Longevity evidence review, page 11

Neither gene moves against the other

Seven tissues carry a value for both genes, and in none of them does one rise while the other falls: they rise together in three, fall together in two and in the remaining two at least one of them does not move.

  • The review reads the KAT6A rise in skin and lung as a pro-aging role that inhibition would reverse. The two brain measurements, in the tissue that matters for the neurodegenerative indications ranked first elsewhere in the pack, show no change with age.
  • KAT6B falls with age in heart and artery, which the review ties to published evidence of an age-related KAT6B decline in hematopoietic stem cells.

Longevity evidence review, page 11

Neither gene appears in any curated aging resource the review checked.
Resource checkedKAT6AKAT6B
ClinicalTrials.gov, aging trialsnot listednot listed
Geroprotectors databasenot listednot listed
GenAge databasenot listednot listed
Aging-related publicationsnot listednot listed

Checked by the review at the date it was produced. Longevity evidence review, page 5

The same table, read two ways
  • The review presents this as a gap it aims to close, and as a first-mover advantage.
  • The same table can be read as four independent curation efforts having looked at this literature and not found enough to include.
No lifespan experiment has been run with a KAT6 inhibitor. The review substitutes evidence from other acetyltransferase inhibitors that touch the same histone marks.
StudyModelWhat it foundHow the review connects it
Huang et al., Aging Cell 2020Yeast and human fibroblastsAcetyltransferase inhibitors, including epigallocatechin gallate, anacardic acid, garcinol and curcumin, extended replicative lifespan by 29 to 50 percent and reduced senescence markers.Those enzymes deposit H3K9 and H3K18 acetylation, marks a KAT6 inhibitor also reduces.
Huang et al., Aging Cell 2020YeastLifespan extension under caloric restriction depends on GCN5.The review reads acetyltransferase inhibition as partly reproducing caloric restriction.
Kirfel et al., 2020Pea aphidInhibiting histone acetylation and deacetylation enzymes changed longevity, development and fecundity.Offered as evidence that the axis holds across species.
Morselli et al., Aging 2009SeveralSpermidine, which inhibits acetyltransferases, extends lifespan by inducing autophagy.Offered as convergent evidence.

None of these compounds is selective for KAT6. The four named natural products inhibit several acetyltransferases and much else besides, which is why the review presents them as precedent rather than as evidence about this target. Longevity evidence review, page 12

Clinic

What has been tested in people

The two clinical sources searched trial registries and the published literature for anything that has put a KAT6 inhibitor into a person. They found a crowded oncology field and nothing at all outside it.

That asymmetry is the single most consequential fact in this pack. It means the mechanism is no longer speculative in humans, and it also means that every claim about aging rests on evidence collected in people with metastatic cancer.

Clinical evidence review, page 1

18clinical assets retrievedThe source’s own count of records retrieved from its internal trials dataset. It does not list them one by one, so the note under the table sets it beside the nineteen identifiers this pack prints.
100%of them in oncologyEvery one, without exception.
0trials in age-related diseaseNo registered or published human study in aging, neurodegeneration or fibrosis.
1with published clinical resultsOne trial, one journal paper. Everything else is a registry entry.

Clinical evidence review, page 1

The assessment’s own framing

“The first-mover ‘gap’ your internal reports identify is real, but it is a gap in evidence, not just in competition.”

Translation assessment, page 1

Figure 8

Stage
10 programs shown
In Phase 3In Phase 1 and 2 or Phase 1
Registered studies retrieved for each program01234HRS-2189, Jiangsu Hengrui4PF-07248144, Pfizer3BG-75202, BeOne Medicines2HLX-97, Shanghai Henlius1IDE-574, Ideaya Biosciences1MEN2312, Menarini1OP-3136, Olema Oncology1
Bar length is the number of registered studies retrieved for each program, which is a measure of how much a sponsor has committed rather than of how well the drug works. Of the programs drawn here, one is in Phase 3; one in Phase 1 and 2; five in Phase 1. SYH-2095, BAY-184 and Prelude KAT6A degrader are in the table but not in this figure: they were retrieved from internal records and carry no registry identifier to count.

Registry records, with compound status cross-checked against the Longevity evidence review. Clinical evidence review, page 3

One row per KAT6 program in the pack. Prifetrastat’s six healthy-volunteer clinical-pharmacology studies are held out and listed under the table. The two inobrodib trials in the pack are not here, because inobrodib inhibits p300 and CBP rather than KAT6 and appears in the sources as a comparator.
ProgramSponsorStageSettingRegistry entriesas retrieved
PF-07248144 (prifetrastat)PfizerPhase 3ER-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, with fulvestrantPhase 3 recruiting, 400 patients, progression-free survival by blinded independent central review as the primary endpoint. The only asset in Phase 3 and the only one with a peer-reviewed clinical publication.NCT04606446, NCT07062965, NCT07340619
HRS-2189Jiangsu HengruiPhase 1 and 2Breast cancer, with planned prostate and colorectal studiesRecruiting; the prostate study is planned. The broadest indication program after Pfizer’s.NCT05851092, NCT06679036, NCT06738745, NCT07061210
BG-75202BeOne MedicinesPhase 1Advanced solid tumors and hematological malignanciesRecruiting. The longevity review lists this as investigational new drug stage; the registry records two Phase 1 studies.NCT07222267, NCT07619287
HLX-97Shanghai HenliusPhase 1Advanced solid tumorsRecruiting. Not present in the internal reports.NCT07480681
IDE-574Ideaya BiosciencesPhase 1ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, with fulvestrantRecruiting. The longevity review refers to this compound as IDE251.NCT07540572
MEN2312MenariniPhase 1ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, with elacestrantRecruiting. Discovered with Insilico Medicine. The two reports that describe the license disagree: the longevity review records a 550 million dollar deal in January 2025, the LongevityClaw assessment a January 2024 agreement of 12 million dollars upfront and more than 500 million in milestones.NCT06638307
OP-3136Olema OncologyPhase 1Advanced solid tumors, with palazestrantRecruiting. Thirty-two patients dosed as of November 2025, per the longevity review.NCT06784193
SYH-2095CSPC PharmaceuticalPhase 1Advanced solid tumorsEarly clinical. Retrieved from an internal record rather than a public registry identifier.none retrieved
BAY-184BayerPreclinicalNot yet definedNo registry record. Carried here because the longevity review lists it as investigational new drug stage; no trial record supports that.none retrieved
Prelude KAT6A degraderPrelude TherapeuticsPreclinicalNot yet definedNo registry record. Carried here because the longevity review lists it as investigational new drug stage; no trial record supports that. The review gives no compound code for it.none retrieved

Sorted by stage, then by how many registry records each program has. The square marks the program that has reached the furthest stage. Where the sources say something about a program beyond its registry record, it is printed under the setting. Clinical evidence review, page 3

The record counts do not reconcile

The translation assessment reports eighteen records from its query and does not print them. This page can name nineteen: thirteen in the table above and six more for prifetrastat’s healthy-volunteer studies, listed below. Three of the programs in the table carry no registry identifier at all, so they cannot be among the eighteen either. Nothing in the pack says which records the query returned, so both totals are left as the reports give them rather than adjusted until they agree.

Clinical evidence review, page 1

Healthy-volunteer studies do not test a benefit in later life
  • Six healthy-volunteer clinical-pharmacology studies of prifetrastat were retrieved: NCT07117799, NCT07198035, NCT07636018, NCT07423286, NCT07335419 and NCT07731100.
  • These are pharmacokinetic, food-effect and drug-interaction studies within the oncology program. None of them is an aging study, and no report presents one as such. The two translation assessments disagree on how many there are: the short one lists all six, the long one names three.

Clinical evidence review, page 3

How far ahead the leader is

Pfizer’s PF-07248144 is the only program in Phase 3. The next furthest is Jiangsu Hengrui’s HRS-2189, in Phase 1 and 2. Roughly two or more years separate the leader from the rest of the field.

Translation assessment, page 4

The one trial with published numbers

Everything below comes from NCT04606446, Phase 1 and 2 dose escalation and expansion, reported in Mukohara et al., Nature Medicine 2024. It is the only place in this pack where a KAT6 inhibitor has been given to people and the results written up in a journal.

What the only published KAT6 inhibitor trial reported.
What was measuredWhat was foundWhat it means for a long-term program
Recommended dose5 mg once daily with fulvestrantThe maximum tolerated dose was not reached, so the dose was set on other grounds.
Target engagementMore than 70 percent reduction in H3K23 acetylation, in tumor tissue and in blood cellsThe mark the enzyme writes falls in patients as it falls in cells, and it falls in normal blood cells as well as in tumor tissue. That is target engagement, and it is the strongest single result in the pack. It is not evidence that the growth arrest seen in culture follows in a person.
Response rate, combination30.2 percent in the published cohort of 43 patients; 37.2 percent in the later dose-optimization readoutThe higher figure comes from a conference abstract, and its confidence interval is printed there with an unresolved upper bound, as 23.0 to 53.x.
NeutropeniaGrade 3 in 39.5 percent and grade 4 in 7.0 percent at the 5 mg dose; 59.8 percent at any grade across the whole Phase 1 populationReversible and dose-dependent. Normal myeloid progenitors are affected at the dose that works. The two sets of figures are not two cuts of one group of patients: the 5 mg rates come from the dose-optimization readout, the any-grade rate from the published Phase 1.
Anemia48.6 percent at any grade, 13.1 percent at grade 3 or 4The second hematological signal, in the same direction.
DysgeusiaAbout 83 percent, grade 1 and 2 onlyNot dangerous. For a drug meant to be taken for years by well people, an 83 percent rate of altered taste is a discontinuation problem rather than a safety one.
Febrile neutropeniaNone reportedThe reason the neutropenia is described as manageable.

Figures as published. The response rate appears twice in the sources, at 30.2 percent in the journal paper and 37.2 percent in a later abstract; both are shown rather than the higher one alone. Translation assessment, page 1

The population these numbers came from

Everything in this table was measured in patients with metastatic breast cancer over months of treatment. The aging case needs years of treatment in people who are well. The trial cannot speak to that, and does not claim to.

Clinical evidence review, page 2

The expression ranking against the clinical record

The translation assessment took the indication ranking from the expression report and asked, for each entry, whether any clinical evidence exists.

Clinical evidence review, page 4

The differential-expression ranking set against what has actually been tested in people.
IndicationSize of the expression changeSignificance as printedClinical evidenceWhere that leaves it
Parkinson’s disease0.370, Tier 1, both raisedp = 2.7e-07 for KAT6A, p = 0.001 for KAT6BNoneExpression only, not clinically validated
Alzheimer’s disease0.327, Tier 1, both raisedp = 1.0e-14 for KAT6A, p = 2.8e-10 for KAT6BNoneExpression only, not clinically validated
Medulloblastoma0.299, Tier 1, both raisedp = 1e-40 for KAT6BNo dedicated trialPlausible in oncology, unproven
Invasive lobular carcinoma0.230, Tier 1, both raisedWithin the breast cancer programAgrees with clinical reality
Acute myeloid leukemia and other blood cancersTier 2 and Tier 3BeOne’s hematological studyAgrees with clinical reality
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis0.151, Tier 2, both loweredNoneLow agreement
ER-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancerNot ranked at the topPhase 3, with the only published efficacy dataThe ranking placed the winner below several untested diseases

Expression values are the indication report’s, and the clinical column is the assessment’s. The number is that report’s own ranking figure: the average of the two genes’ fold changes with the direction set aside, so a disease where both genes fall can rank alongside one where both genes rise. Direction is given in words for that reason. Pulmonary fibrosis is the row where it matters: both genes are lower there, not higher. Clinical evidence review, page 4

The comparison the assessment insists on

A fold change of 0.3 to 0.4 in diseased tissue is not the same class of evidence as an amplification-driven dependency, and a ranking that treats them alike will put an untested disease above the one indication where the drug has already worked.

Clinical evidence review, page 4

The assessment sorts the candidate indications into three groups by what would have to be true for each to work.
GroupIndicationsWhat would have to be true
Clinically anchoredER-positive breast cancer, other hormone-driven tumors, acute myeloid leukemiaNothing new. The mechanism is already engaged in patients and the readouts exist.
Adjacent, testable within oncologyCancer interception in high-risk populations, senescence and secretory-phenotype modulation, myelodysplastic syndromesAdd geroscience measurements to trials that are running anyway.
Speculative for nowParkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, healthy agingEvidence that pushing the target in the intended direction changes the disease, which does not yet exist in any species.

Clinical evidence review, page 4

The assessment’s decision, taken separately for each program rather than for the target as a whole.
ProgramCallOn what grounds
Oncology, hormone-driven breast cancerGoHuman target engagement, a published response rate, a Phase 3 study running, and a manageable toxicity profile in this population.
Cancer interception and senescence biology, inside oncology trialsConditionalCheap to test, because the trials exist. Requires biomarker work rather than a new study.
Standalone aging or geroscienceNo-goNo human evidence, no animal lifespan or healthspan experiment, a chronic-dosing safety profile that has not been established in well people, and an unresolved argument about whether the mechanism points in the right direction.

Clinical evidence review, page 5

Five things nobody has measured

Five things stand between the current evidence and an aging indication. The assessment lists them in the order they would have to be closed.

  • No non-oncology human data of any kind. Not a single registered or published trial in aging, neurodegeneration, fibrosis, or metabolic and vascular disease.
  • The direction of the senescence effect is unsettled. The mechanism induces senescence. Aging medicine spends its effort clearing senescent cells. Nobody has shown which effect dominates in a healthy older animal.
  • Chronic safety is unknown. Grade 3 neutropenia in roughly 40 percent of patients is acceptable in metastatic cancer. There is no evidence about what happens over years at a lower dose in someone who is well.
  • No validated aging endpoint has been measured. No epigenetic clock, no senescence panel, no functional healthspan measure has been recorded in anyone taking a KAT6 inhibitor.
  • The expression signal has not been tied to causation. A gene being raised in diseased tissue does not establish that lowering its activity helps. No genetic causal analysis has been run for either gene against any aging indication.

Clinical evidence review, page 5

How much weight the assessment puts on each of its own conclusions.
ClaimConfidenceOn what basis
The oncology landscape as retrievedHighRegistry records and a peer-reviewed publication.
The updated response rate of 37.2 percentModerateConference abstract, with a confidence interval printed incompletely.
That there is no non-oncology human evidenceHighA negative across registry and literature retrieval, cross-checked against three curated aging databases in the longevity review.

Clinical evidence review, page 6

Design and risk

How the review would run it

Having argued that the pair belongs to aging biology, the longevity review sets out how it would run the program and what it expects to go wrong. That part of the review is reproduced here whole, because it is the part that stays useful whether or not a reader accepts the argument above it.

The severities are the review’s own. So is the reasoning in the last row, which is the clearest instance in the pack of a missing body of evidence being counted as an advantage.

Longevity evidence review, page 14

The four risks the review lists against its own proposal, with the severity it gives each one in its own words. One it declines to grade, and that row is marked not rated.
RiskSeverityWhat the review proposes about it
Stem cell exhaustion (KAT6A essential for HSC/NSC maintenance)HighKAT6A-selective inhibitors allow KAT6B compensation (Bergamasco 2025); intermittent dosing
Over-activation of p16 pathwayModerateDose optimization; haploinsufficiency level of inhibition is well-tolerated
Immune effects (myeloid differentiation bias)Low to ModerateMonitoring; KAT6B age-related decline already occurs naturally
No direct longevity dataNot ratedRepresents opportunity for first-mover studies

Longevity evidence review, page 14

How the last row is written

The last row is the review’s own framing, reproduced here as written. It is the clearest single instance in the pack of an absence of evidence being carried in the benefits column.

Longevity evidence review, page 14

The three things the review proposes doing
  • KAT6A-selective, low-dose, intermittent inhibition — to selectively push damaged/pre-cancerous cells into senescence while preserving stem cell pools (KAT6B compensates)
  • Combination with senolytics — KAT6 inhibitor first (identifies and arrests damaged cells via senescence induction), followed by senolytic clearance (dasatinib + quercetin or navitoclax)
  • Epigenetic age monitoring — GrimAge and mammalian aging clocks containing KAT6B CpGs can serve as pharmacodynamic biomarkers

Longevity evidence review, page 14

What the third proposal assumes

The third proposal uses the clock evidence as a readout rather than as support for the thesis, which is the use the other reports in the pack accept.

Longevity evidence review, page 14

Evidence quality

What the ranking rests on

The ranking that drives most of this page came with its own appraisal of how far it can be trusted, and that appraisal is printed here rather than left in the file. It grades the evidence behind each position, flags the measures it does not want weight put on, and lists the databases each figure came from.

Read it as a limit on the sections above, not as a footnote to them. A ranking whose own authors mark part of it as low-confidence is being honest, and the reader is owed the same view they had.

6indications appraised for KAT6AFive graded strong and one graded moderate.
4indications appraised for KAT6BTwo graded moderate and two graded strong.
Every indication the appraisal grades, ten in all, with what each grade rests on.
IndicationProteinWhat it rests onGradeWhy that grade
breast cancerKAT6Agenetic-association (PandaOmics; not fine-mapped), cell-type-resolved expression (HPA)Strong≥2 independent high-weight lines agree
acute myeloid leukemiaKAT6Agenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
leukemiaKAT6Agenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
glioblastoma multiformeKAT6Agenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
renal cell carcinomaKAT6Agenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
ovarian cancerKAT6Acell-type expressionModerate1 high-weight line
B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomaKAT6Bgenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
Genitopatellar syndromeKAT6Bgenetic-association, cell-type expressionStrong
leukemiaKAT6Bcell-type expressionModerate
breast cancerKAT6Bcell-type expressionModerate

Two of the ten grades come with a reason. The rest are given without one, and a dash is where a reason would be.

What the appraisal counts in the ranking’s favor, recorded identically for KAT6A and KAT6B
  • Cell-type-resolved expression available (HPA) — a genuine orthogonal line to the ranking.
  • At least one indication has ≥2 independent high-weight evidence lines that agree.
What the appraisal counts against it, recorded identically for KAT6A and KAT6B
  • None triggered.
The fifteen retrievals the report says it made, and which part of the ranking each one carries.
What it was used forDatabaseHow it was retrieved
Indication rankingPandaOmics Indication Prioritization (Insilico Medicine)backend API
Target characterizationUniProt (SwissProt), NCBI GeneREST, accessed 2026-08-11
StructuresPDBeREST
Species homology and paralogsEnsembl ComparaREST
Drugs and approvalChEMBL 35REST
GWASGWAS CatalogREST
VariantsClinVarNCBI eutils
ConstraintgnomAD v4GraphQL
Tractability and essentialityOpen Targets PlatformGraphQL
PathwaysReactome (CC-BY 4.0)REST
Protein interaction networkSTRING v12.0REST
Cell-type expressionHuman Protein Atlas (CC-BY-SA 4.0)REST
Clinical trialsClinicalTrials.gov API v2REST
Intellectual propertyFreePatentsOnline, Google Patentspatent search
LiteraturePubMedliterature-review subagent

One of the fifteen retrievals records the date it was made. For the rest the pull is undated, so a value that has changed in the database since cannot be told apart from one that has not.

Corrections

What this page found in the source reports

Fifteen points were logged while reading the six reports: four errors, four disagreements between two reports and seven notes on how a figure must be read. None of them is hidden here. Each entry names what the source says, where it says it, why it cannot stand, and what this page does about it.

CorrectionAll four quadrant annotations on the KAT6A versus KAT6B concordance scatter plot are mirrored through the origin.corr-1
Where it appears
Figure 2, page 3 of the indication report
Why it cannot stand
Parkinson’s disease is printed in the Tier 1 table at KAT6A +0.414 and KAT6B +0.326, so it plots in the upper right. The label drawn in that quadrant reads “Both DOWN” (Tier 2). Hypertension is printed in the Tier 2 table at KAT6A −0.471 and KAT6B −0.394, so it plots in the lower left, where the drawn label reads “Both UP” (Tier 1). The two discordant quadrant labels are mirrored the same way. The report’s own caption for this figure places “Tier 1 (upper-right, both upregulated) and Tier 2 (lower-left, both downregulated)”, which matches the tables, so it is the four labels drawn on the chart that are wrong. The underlying numbers are correct and internally consistent. Only the figure’s annotations are wrong.
How this site handles it
The chart has been rebuilt here with the quadrants labeled correctly.
DiscrepancySystemic scleroderma is listed in section 5.1 with an average absolute log fold change of 0.167, which would place it 14th in the Tier 2 ranking, but it does not appear in the Tier 2 table, whose ranks run 1 to 17 without a gap.corr-2
Where it appears
Tier 2 table on page 3 versus section 5.1 on page 5
Why it cannot stand
Either the Tier 2 table is a selection rather than a strict top 17, or one row was dropped and the ranks below 14 are shifted by one.
How this site handles it
Systemic scleroderma is carried below as a named row with its average only, and is excluded from the scatter plot because its two gene-level values are not printed.
Note on the sourceThe two views give different numbers for the same cancers because they use different statistics. Medulloblastoma is +0.184 and +0.414 in the tier table but 0.181 and 0.265 as a median across experiments in the indication report’s Figure 6.corr-3
Where it appears
Tier 1 table on page 2 versus Figure 6 on page 9
Why it cannot stand
Not an error, but the two figures cannot be read side by side as if they were the same quantity.
How this site handles it
The tier tables and the per-experiment medians are kept as separate datasets here and are labeled as such.
Note on the sourceThe 8p11 amplicon frequency is given twice with different bounds.corr-4
Where it appears
Longevity review, section 1.3 gives 12 to 15 percent; the first selectivity pillar gives 10 to 15 percent. Both cite Turner-Ivey et al., 2014.
Why it cannot stand
The translation assessment quotes roughly 10 to 15 percent, attributing it to the same internal report.
How this site handles it
The lower bound is carried as 10 percent throughout this page, which is the figure the primary citation supports in both reports.
Note on the sourceIdeaya’s compound is named IDE251.corr-5
Where it appears
Longevity review, section 1.2, IND-stage candidates.
Why it cannot stand
The translation assessment retrieved the registry entry for the dual KAT6 and KAT7 inhibitor as IDE-574, on NCT07540572, and noted the internal report’s reference to IDE251.
How this site handles it
This page uses IDE-574, the identifier that resolves in the registry.
Note on the sourceThe Phase 3 study is named KATSIS-1.corr-6
Where it appears
Longevity review, section 1.1, clinical programs table.
Why it cannot stand
The translation assessment retrieved the Phase 3 record as NCT07062965, recruiting, 400 patients, with progression-free survival as the primary endpoint, and reported no acronym.
How this site handles it
The registry identifier is used. The acronym is not corroborated anywhere else in the pack, so it is not printed as fact.
Note on the sourceThe confidence interval on the updated response rate is printed with an unresolved upper bound, as 23.0 to 53.x.corr-7
Where it appears
Translation assessment, page 2 and again in the benchmark table.
Why it cannot stand
The figure comes from a conference abstract rather than the peer-reviewed paper. The report flags the difference between the two response rates itself.
How this site handles it
The interval is shown as the report prints it, with the missing digit visible rather than filled in.
Note on the sourceThe dysgeusia rate is given as 84.6 percent in one report and 83.2 percent in another, both from the same trial.corr-8
Where it appears
Longevity review page 4; translation assessment page 2 and its source list.
Why it cannot stand
Neither report reached the primary publication directly for this figure; the translation assessment cites the paper’s PubMed record.
How this site handles it
The figure traceable to the publication record is used, and the discrepancy is stated rather than smoothed.
CorrectionThe evaluation reports that a search of the public trial registry returned no studies of either gene.corr-9
Where it appears
Target evaluation, clinical trials section
Why it cannot stand
It writes: “No clinical trials were found for KAT6A or KAT6B in the ClinicalTrials.gov API query.” Two ClinicoClaw reports searching that day returned programs: eight distinct KAT6 programs in the clinic in the clinical review, eighteen clinical asset records in the translation assessment. Neither of them searched by gene symbol. A null result from one query is a search failure, not an empty landscape.
How this site handles it
The registry landscape on this page comes from the two clinical reports, which queried by drug name. The target evaluation’s null result is treated as a failed query rather than as evidence of an empty field.
DiscrepancyThe Menarini license is dated and sized differently by two reports.corr-10
Where it appears
Longevity review, pipeline table, records a 550 million dollar deal in January 2025. LongevityClaw assessment, bibliography, records a January 2024 agreement of 12 million dollars upfront and more than 500 million in milestones.
Why it cannot stand
The two money figures are reconcilable if the larger one is the total including milestones. The two dates are a year apart and are not reconcilable.
How this site handles it
This page prints both versions side by side in the program table and asserts neither. No external source was consulted to settle it.
DiscrepancyThe number of healthy-volunteer studies differs between the two translation assessments.corr-11
Where it appears
The clinical evidence review’s registry list gives six for prifetrastat. The translation assessment names three of the same six.
Why it cannot stand
Every identifier the translation assessment names also appears in the clinical evidence review’s list, so the shorter figure is a subset rather than a contradiction.
How this site handles it
This page carries six, and says which report gives which figure.
CorrectionThe clinical evidence review says only one KAT6 asset has advanced past Phase 1, and its own pipeline table lists another that has.corr-12
Where it appears
The clinical evidence review’s competitive summary, against its pipeline table on the following page.
Why it cannot stand
The table gives Jiangsu Hengrui’s HRS-2189 as Phase 1 and 2, so at least two assets are past Phase 1. The translation assessment states the true version of the claim, that the leader is the only asset in Phase 3.
How this site handles it
This page prints the translation assessment’s wording and the stage each asset is at, so the claim and the table agree.
DiscrepancyThe evaluation puts the senescence panel among its cheapest next steps in its summary and last in its own cost-ordered list of the same checks.corr-13
Where it appears
Target evaluation, executive summary against its recommended-checks list.
Why it cannot stand
The summary names the panel alongside drug-target Mendelian randomization as the cheapest next steps. The list headed as cost-ordered runs from a phenome-wide association scan to the senescence panel, putting the panel sixth of six. Both sentences are about the same experiment in the same report.
How this site handles it
This page uses the position in the cost-ordered list, which is explicit about what it is ranking, and says on the page where the experiment is discussed that the report’s summary disagrees with it.
Note on the sourceThe translation assessment prints three neutropenia rates in one cell, marked only by a dose, and they come from two different cohorts.corr-14
Where it appears
Clinical translation assessment, long version, safety summary and its table.
Why it cannot stand
The cell reads grade 3 in 39.5 percent and grade 4 in 7.0 percent at 5 mg, all grades 59.8 percent. The report’s own reference list attributes the first two to the 2025 dose-optimization abstract at the 5 mg dose and the third to the published Phase 1 across all doses. Nothing in the cell says the denominators differ, so the three read as one cohort cut three ways.
How this site handles it
Both figures are printed on this page with the population each was measured in named beside it, and the safety row says which readout each came from.
CorrectionThe evaluation lists 8A27 among the solved structures of KAT6A, and gives it the largest share of the protein of any structure on the page.corr-15
Where it appears
Target evaluation, solved structures table
Why it cannot stand
Looked up in the Protein Data Bank’s entry record for each identifier, retrieved 2026-08-12: 8A27 is the epidermal growth factor receptor kinase domain bound to an isoindolinone acetamide, solved by X-ray diffraction at 1.07 ångström. No KAT6A chain is deposited under it. The evaluation prints it at 1.55 ångström covering thirteen percent of KAT6A. Seven of the eight listed identifiers return the protein the evaluation names; this one does not.
How this site handles it
The row stays in the table and the bar stays in the chart, as the evaluation printed them, with the finding flagged above both. Nothing on this page is computed from that row: the structure count and the best resolution are the evaluation’s own figures, and the best resolution comes from a different structure.
Why these are listed

A report that has been read closely enough to log fifteen points against it is more useful than one that has not been read that way, whether or not every point can be resolved. The list is published so that the next reader starts from a known position rather than repeating the work.

Next

What would change the answer

The sequence the clinical evidence review proposes

The assessment’s proposed sequence, in the order the assessment proposes it, with the cost it puts against each step.

  1. Instrument the oncology trials that are already running.

    Add GrimAge2 and PhenoAge clocks, p16 and secretory-phenotype panels, GDF15, and H3K23 acetylation in blood cells to studies that are enrolling now. The single highest-value and lowest-cost action available. It generates the aging readouts nobody has, without a new trial.

    Cost: low.
  2. Run a low-dose paradigm study in aged animals.

    Dose aged mice intermittently at a level below the oncology exposure and measure senescence burden, secretory phenotype, immune composition and function. Settles the direction argument, which is the disagreement that blocks everything downstream.

    Cost: medium.
  3. Frame the near-term program as cancer interception.

    Target high-risk populations inside the oncology indication rather than presenting a healthy-aging claim. Keeps the regulatory path and the endpoint definition on ground that already exists.

    Cost: low.
  4. Differentiate the molecule.

    Pursue selectivity between the two paralogs, or a degrader, so that the chronic-use profile is not the one Pfizer already has. The clinical-stage field is crowded with the same mechanism at the same dose intensity.

    Cost: high.

Checks the target evaluation names but did not run

Not run in the source report. Listed in cost order, cheapest first. The first three are cheap and kill most predictions. Run them before committing to any expansion indication.

  1. Run a phenome-wide association study on loss-of-function and coding variants in UK Biobank or FinnGen.

    People who carry a broken copy of the gene are the closest thing to a lifelong experiment in inhibiting it. A carrier phenotype matching one of the proposed indications would support that indication; no phenotype at all would weaken every genetic argument on this page.

  2. Run drug-target Mendelian randomization with colocalization and a bidirectional test.

    This separates a gene that drives a disease from one that merely responds to it. The expression ranking cannot make that distinction, and it is the distinction the whole indication list rests on.

  3. Measure expression by cell type in a single-cell atlas of the diseased tissue.

    Expression measured in whole tissue also rises when the cells carrying the gene become more numerous. This says whether the gene is genuinely more active in a given cell, or whether the tissue simply has more of that cell in it.

  4. Read the knockout phenotypes in the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, and the DepMap dependency scores for the cancer indications.

    A knockout phenotype in the relevant organ would support the indication. A DepMap dependency would say whether tumor cells need the gene in order to survive, which is what an oncology program is betting on.

  5. Run an on-target safety scan across healthy tissues.

    Both genes cause developmental syndromes when disrupted, so which healthy tissues an inhibitor would affect is an open question rather than a formality.

  6. Run a senescence and secretory-phenotype panel in aged animals, for the aging indications.

    No published experiment has tested whether changing either gene changes lifespan or senescent burden. This would be the first result bearing directly on the aging case, rather than by inference from expression.

The four things that would settle an argument on this page
  • Read Mukohara et al. (2024) directly and replace every inherited characterization of the Phase 1 result with quoted figures.
  • Re-run the trial registry query by drug name rather than gene symbol, and reconcile against the internal trials dataset.
  • Run drug-target Mendelian randomization for KAT6A and KAT6B against the candidate indications to establish direction of effect.
  • Run a senescence and secretory-phenotype panel in aged animals to resolve whether inhibition raises or lowers senescent cell burden.

None of these is a decision. Each one is a piece of work whose result would change what this page says, which is the only useful test of whether it is worth doing.

Method

How this page was built

Six reports were read end to end. Every number and every quotation on this page was transcribed from one of them, and each block names the report and the page it came from. Nothing was added from the literature, from a database, or from anywhere else.

Where this page weighs one source against another, reads a table differently from the report it came from, or says which of two findings matters more, it is doing so in its own voice. Those passages are marked as this page’s reading, and the source’s own reading is given alongside so the two can be told apart.

The page is built by a script. Charts are drawn at build time from the transcribed values, so a figure cannot show a number that is not in the underlying record. Where a source’s own figure was wrong, it was redrawn from that source’s own table and the defect is listed.

Rules this page follows
  • Every block that asserts a fact names its source. A block without one fails the build.
  • Where two sources conflict, both are shown with attribution. Neither is silently preferred.
  • Numbers are printed as the source prints them, including where a source prints two different values for the same quantity.
  • Interactive controls change what is visible, never what is stated. The page reads the same with scripting switched off, and prints the same.
Content in the sources that is not on this page
  • Eleven figures and two knowledge-graph files that the target evaluation refers to but never delivered. They are named in the source and cannot be reproduced.
  • The full ranked list of roughly 1,000 indications. The page shows the aging entries in full and the highest-ranked entries overall.
  • Patent-family detail beyond the count of families and their holders.
What this page cannot tell you
  • Whether any of the source reports is correct. This page shows what they say and where they conflict; it does not adjudicate the biology.
  • Anything about KAT6 published after the reports were produced. No external source was read.
  • Any probability of success this page arrives at itself. One report puts figures on its own confidence and a second states a prior in words; both are reproduced under the name of the report that wrote them. Nothing here averages, adjusts or extends either.

Sources cited

References and terms

Papers the reports cite

Papers cited by the source reports. They were not read for this page; they are listed so that a reader can go to the primary record.

  1. Baell JB et al. (2018) Inhibitors of histone acetyltransferases KAT6A/B induce senescence and arrest tumour growth Nature
  2. Carapeti M et al. (1998) A novel fusion between MOZ and the nuclear receptor coactivator TIF2 in acute myeloid leukemia Blood
  3. Collins HM et al. (2006) MOZ-TIF2 alters cofactor recruitment and histone modification at the RARbeta2 promoter J Biol Chem
  4. Huang F et al. (2016) Regulation of KAT6 acetyltransferases and their roles in cell cycle progression, stem cell maintenance, and human disease Mol Cell Biol
  5. Katsumoto T et al. (2006) MOZ is essential for maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells Genes Dev
  6. Katsumoto T et al. (2022) MOZ is critical for the development of MOZ/MLL fusion-induced leukemia through regulation of Hoxa9/Meis1 expression Blood Adv
  7. Kindle KB et al. (2005) MOZ-TIF2 inhibits transcription by nuclear receptors and p53 by impairment of CBP function Mol Cell Biol
  8. Largeot A et al. (2016) Expression of the MOZ-TIF2 oncoprotein in mice represses senescence Exp Hematol
  9. Miyamoto R et al. (2020) Activation of CpG-rich promoters mediated by MLL drives MOZ-rearranged leukemia Cell Rep
  10. Mousavi N & Yang XJ (2025) Lysine Acetyltransferase 6 Complexes in Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Different Types of Cancer Results Probl Cell Differ
  11. Mukohara T et al. (2024) Inhibition of lysine acetyltransferase KAT6 in ER+HER2− metastatic breast cancer: a phase 1 trial Nat Med
  12. Rokudai S et al. (2013) MOZ increases p53 acetylation and premature senescence through its complex formation with PML Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
  13. Sheridan M et al. (2024) The small inhibitor WM-1119 effectively targets KAT6A-rearranged AML, but not KMT2A-rearranged AML, despite shared KAT6 genetic dependency J Hematol Oncol
  14. Smolko AE et al. (2024) A MOZ-TIF2 leukemia mouse model displays KAT6-dependent H3K23 propionylation and overexpression of a set of active developmental genes Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
  15. Tan Y et al. (2025) Lysine Acetyltransferase 6 in Health and Disease MedComm
  16. Xi Z et al. (2026) Dancing with KAT6A: current advances and therapeutic potential in oncology of KAT6A inhibitors Bioorg Chem
  17. Yang XJ & Ullah M (2007) MOZ and MORF, two large MYSTic HATs in normal and cancer stem cells Oncogene

Terms used here

Histone acetyltransferase
An enzyme that attaches a small chemical tag to the proteins DNA is wound around, which loosens the packing and lets genes be read. KAT6A and KAT6B are two of them, from the group numbered KAT5 to KAT8 that the reports call the MYST family. Written in the reports as: HAT, KAT, MYST
Log2 fold change
How much a gene’s activity differs between diseased and healthy tissue, on a doubling scale. A value of 1 means twice as much; 0.4 means about a third more. Written in the reports as: log2FC, logFC
Epigenetic clock
A statistical model that estimates a person’s age from chemical marks on their DNA. A gene being one of the model’s inputs says it tracks age, not that it causes aging. Written in the reports as: GrimAge2, PhenoAge
Cellular senescence
A state in which a cell stops dividing permanently but stays alive and keeps signaling to its neighbors. Blocking KAT6 pushes cells into it.
Secretory phenotype
The set of inflammatory signals a senescent cell releases. It is the reason senescent cells are thought to damage the tissue around them. Written in the reports as: SASP
Tolerance of losing one gene copy
A measure of how badly a species tolerates losing one working copy of a gene. Low values mean the gene is rarely lost in healthy people, so blocking it needs care. Written in the reports as: LOEUF
Genome-wide association study
A scan across the genomes of many people for common inherited differences that occur more often in those with a trait. It shows a stretch of chromosome is involved, not which gene in it does the work. Written in the reports as: GWAS
Mendelian randomization
A method that uses inherited genetic differences to test whether changing a gene’s activity actually changes a disease, rather than merely tracking with it.
Blinded independent central review
Scans in a trial are read by assessors who do not know which treatment a patient received, so the result cannot drift toward the sponsor’s hope. Written in the reports as: BICR
Arboleda-Tham syndrome
The developmental disorder caused by being born with one working copy of KAT6A rather than two. The target evaluation calls it KAT6A syndrome and the other reports that mention it use this name; both describe the same loss of one copy. Written in the reports as: KAT6A syndrome
Neutropenia
A shortage of the white blood cells that fight bacterial infection. Grade 3 and grade 4 mean severe and life-threatening.
Dysgeusia
A distorted sense of taste. Not dangerous, but a common reason people stop taking a drug they do not feel ill without.